How Is Asarum Pollinated?

One of the oddest and most fascinating little genera of our native flora is Asarum, a very characteristic type of the Appalachian forests; yet I am not aware that it has ever been definitely settled in what way it is pollinated: whether self-pollinated, cross-pollinated by insects, or by some other agency. With its curious jug-shaped flowers consisting in a fleshy, livid-colored, lurid, greenish, or purple-suffused calyx with somewhat petal-like lobes, it is one of the most singular of our early spring flowers. A further peculiarity is the way the flowers often bloom secretively under dead forest litter or even half- buried, up to their necks, in the earth. The aromatic rootstocks, and the striking leaves, reniform, hastate, halberd-shaped, evergreen or annual, all contribute to make these plants as gamey to find as truffles, as curious as aroids.